Dedicating my birthday to Chopin!

I'm often asked to name my favorite composer, and nearly always, it's the one whose music I'm currently studying and teaching. In this case, Chopin's posthumous Waltz in A minor, discovered by musicologists in the 1950s, is the CHOSEN. http://youtu.be/0fyaPEjVIl0 Not cluttered with reams of intricate runs and fancy ornaments, it's a good first Waltz…

Physical fitness and piano playing

For the past few years, I've adhered to a fitness program that includes daily exercising at the Y gym. I don't use weights because of their stress on my wrists, but I find the Gravitron (demonstrated in part one of my video) to be an upper body strength-builder. Particularly when I need added dead weight…

She plays “red-blooded” harpsichord!

It's well-known to a wide audience of admirers that Elaine Comparone has a commanding presence at the harpsichord. And while she sits this one out in a bedazzling reading of Bach's D minor concerto, she's made headlines standing before her beloved as Queen of a Chamber Band that's produced reams of high quality performances. Comparone,…

Reviewing Chopin’s Nocturne in C# minor, Op. Posthumous (MOVIE THEME, THE PIANIST)

http://youtu.be/y7Kry7-jrME We have to give credit to movie-makers for putting this hauntingly beautiful composition on the popular marquee of Classical music favorites. It shares notoriety with Mozart's middle movement theme of Concerto no. 21 in C, which recurred throughout the film, Elvira Madigan. Chopin's Nocturne in C# minor was a perfect match for Roman Polanski's…

The funniest adult piano student confessions

1) I couldn't get to the piano this week because of my constipated cat. 2) I can't play the Bb scale because it gets all "gummed up." (????) 3) The cleaning lady was vacuuming the piano, inside and out. 4) We were away on a whale-watching expedition in Baja. 5) We changed the clocks so…

A Peak teaching and learning experience!

Piano teachers may complain about students who hardly practice, or come to lessons with a truckload of excuses, but the times we savor are when everything seems to click. Tonight, I had a lesson with an adult student who announced immediately before playing a note that her piece "was in the doghouse." What a tension-relieving…

Chopin Prelude No. 3 in G Major, Op. 28: Is the ultimate tempo within reach?

Without a doubt, Chopin's Prelude in G, Op. 28, No.3, requires a deft Left Hand that can meet the challenge of playing 16th notes in Vivace framing. (extremely quickly) The question is, can most students apply their slow practicing model to the mega-speed zone. In this connection, I often wonder, if there's an inborn disposition…

Chopin’s Nocturne in E minor, Op. 72, No. 1: Rotation, voicing, phrasing

Many students believe their hands are too small to navigate the E minor Nocturne. Seeing awkward intervals inside of broken chords that often span beyond an octave, they have a fixed mindset that the Left Hand (in this composition) must pre-stretch the distance between the lower and upper most note to insure ACCURACY, at least.…

Piano Technique: Practicing Arpeggios in 10ths, and in Contrary motion

I've selected broken chord chains or arpeggios (harp-like figures) that have symmetries between the hands when played in 10ths, and separately in contrary motion. Taken together, these are not pedantic exercises, but expressive romps over many octaves culminating in a rotation at the turnaround to the descent in pleasing contour. In the second instruction, my…

Piano Technique: A styled staccato with a dipping wrist

I find that adding supple wrist dips to staccato within any dynamic range helps to style and shape lines, phrases, etc. Here's it's first executed within a scale framework. A cat cameo appearance is the opener. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXKU2qKdaMw Now a sample of shaped staccato in the soft range, played after a nicely contoured legato. (just snip…